Back to the Basics
Fellowship
ME
Some of the best times I have had in my life have been when I was involved with playing fast pitch softball. It was a sport that I absolutely loved. To look at me now you would never think any sort of sport was part of my life, but it was for about 15 years. I played until I was a youth minister and I had to make a choice of what was more important.
Now way could I play softball they way I did and be a youth minister because softball involved so much of my life. When I became a youth minister I had to make the choice between competitive softball or ministry, and of course I chose ministry.
But how come softball became so important to me. Was it because I liked the act of throwing the ball or I liked hitting home runs? Was it because running around the bases was fun or fielding a fly ball? And honestly I can say no to all of these things.
I don’t know how many times I went and threw the ball up against a block or concrete wall when I was learning to pitch. Or how many times I threw the ball up in the air and chased it down in catching fly balls. Or even going to the ballpark and throwing the ball up and hitting it with the bat to see how many I could hit out of the park.
When you think about it, it’s not really the acts of playing softball that I liked, but it was being with other people and having others to play the game with and against. It’s being together with a bunch of people with common skills, common purpose, and common goals.
On top of that how would I truly be able to improve my playing skills, be encouraged by others to play better, or be able to pass my skills on to others if I didn’t have others to play the game with?
WE
Isn’t this true to most, if not all of us? That we need others to be a better person and we need others that we can pass our experience on to. And not with just sports, but with life. I would have never became the pitcher I was in fast pitch softball without the teaching I received from Denny Thornton and it turned out that I ended up being better than him.
But again this is true in life. Without others around us to encourage us, teach us, and to interact with us how would we ever know to be better than we are? Why would we want to improve and be a better person? However, other people don’t always improve us, because some people are bad influences.
For instance if you lived in the inner city of Chicago and were involved with a gang then you are probably not going to improve as a person, but you will probably be a good criminal. It’s generally the people you hang around with who have the most influence on your life and hopefully that influence from others around us will make us a better person rather than worse.
This is way Christian fellowship is so important and a basic of Christianity. Because without fellowship with other Christians how could we grow or spur others on to Christian growth? How could we or why would we even want to do good works for other people? And if we didn't have Christian fellowship why would anyone else want to become a follower of Christ?
In the second chapter of Acts in verse 42-47 again let’s see what these new Christians did.
GOD
They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. 43 Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. 44 All the believers were together and had everything in common. 45 They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. 46 Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, 47 praising God and enjoying the favor of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. Acts 2:42-47
You see they devoted themselves not only to the apostles teaching, to the Lord’s Supper, to prayer, but also to fellowship. And you continue in these verses and you see elements of their fellowship.
Being together — it’s pretty hard to have fellowship with being together.
They had everything in common — generally people don’t stay together unless they have commonality and of course their commonality was in Jesus Christ.
They took care of each other by selling their property and possessions.
And do you see what happened as a result of their fellowship. “The Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved.” Fellowship is much like worship. Good fellowship along with good worship is attractive to others and they will want to join in. However with worship, this is something that can be done with others or on our own. Fellowship in done together.
The New Testament word for Fellowship is Koinonia. This word expresses the idea of being together for mutual benefit.
Baker’s Encyclopedia of the Bible defines Fellowship as — “the essence of the Christian life — fellowship with God and fellowship with other believers in Christ.”
For someone to seek to be a Christian without Christian fellowship would practically be an impossibility. After all if Baker is right that fellowship with other Christ followers is the essence of the Christian life how could a person truly be a Christian without this fellowship.
I mean you can only throw a ball up against a wall in learning to pitch so long before it gets to be boring and eventually you stop. You need to batter and the players around you to interact with, to be encouraged by and to spur you on to get better.
After all doesn’t Scripture talk about this? In Hebrews 10:24-25, And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.
Scripture does talk about this doesn’t it. Christianity involves other people, it involves relationships, it involves feeding off of one another and spurring on another on toward love and good deeds.
You see when Christians don’t meet together and have fellowship with one another how will we get encouragement, and who will know to pray for us, and who will know when we have needs that we need help with? A person simply cannot be Christian without the essence of Christianity and that is fellowship with other believers and with God.
Notice that it is with God and with other believers. I have heard people say over the years that they can be a Christian without being around other Christians. “All I need is God, I read His Word daily and try to live a good life and I’m ok with that.” Really? You are ok with that and you read God’s Word daily. Hmm — how can you be ok with that as you read God’s Word?
Romans 12:16 says, Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. How can you be in harmony with others without being with others? And aren’t you a little proud of yourself by not associating with others. And aren’t you being conceited by thinking you don’t need anyone’s help.
I’m not sure about you, but I am about me. I cannot be a good Christian, nor will I ever improve at being a Christian unless I have fellowship with God and other Christians because I need to feed off others, I need encouragement from others, and I need to use what God has given me to help others.
Consider Acts 1:14, They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers. They were together and had a common purpose.
Consider Phil. 2:3-4, Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. Will we ever value others above ourselves and look to their interest if we aren’t around them and know them?
Right after this verse it says, “In your relationships with others, have the same mindset as Christ.” Christ certainly didn’t keep to Himself, but was around others all of the time except for the few times He needed it to just be Him and His Father. And when He was around others He put them first.
Consider Romans 12:4-5, For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.
In Christ we all belong to each other as we form the body of Christ on earth today. There is not an eye over there and an ear there and a foot here. But everyone together as all the parts of our body works together is what Christians do, we work together.
Consider Acts 4:32-35, All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them.
For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.
Christians share with each other and help each other and see to each other’s needs. Without being with other Christians these things are impossible.
Consider these scriptures as well, Eph. 2:19, Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of his household.
1 Thess 5:10-11, He died for us so that, whether we are awake or asleep, we may live together with him. Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
Heb. 3:13, But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today,” so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.
Considering all of these verses and I could have went further — when I hear someone say I don’t need to go to church and be with other Christians to be a Christian, after all I pray and I read God’s Word I have to say — hmm, how do you read God’s Word and still believe you don’t need to be with other Christians?
Fellowship with other people is really just a basic human need. It’s been proven over the years that those who interact with others live longer, happier lives. Knowing that others are there to help you and that you can help them if need be, gives us a different perspective on life.
ILLUS: I have had to spend a lot of time at home lately because Maria has been so sick and I can tell you that I have felt isolated and that is with being with Maria. A person can only spend so much time without others and remain sane.
Fellowship is also needed for emotional support. Col. 3:12-14,
Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Col. 3:12-14
ILLUS: Ronald J. Sider, professor of theology at Palmer Theological Seminary asked the question, “What happens when God grants the gift of genuine Christian fellowship?
Then he answers: Deep, joyful sharing replaces the polite prattle typically exchanged by Christians on Sunday morning.
Sisters and brothers begin to discuss the things that really matter to them. They disclose their inner fears, their areas of peculiar temptation, their deepest joys.”
YOU
What do you think of fellowship? To many people fellowship is simply to come together and exchange niceties, to talk about the weather or sports and get together for a meal. But as you can see it is so much more than that.
In today’s terminology I would exchange the word Fellowship with Community because I think it better describes what the Bible refers to as fellowship.
To be in Christian community is to be in a community in which individuals willing pledge to share in common with one another, to be in submission to each other, to support one another and bear one another’s burdens, to build each other up in our relationship with Jesus.
And God through Jesus Christ has designed the Christian community to grow so that we will be continually building each other up and continually doing works of service so that the community will continue to grow into the knowledge of Christ.
Eph. 4:11-13, So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.
And then in Eph. 4:16, From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.
That describes a community that is thriving and growing as God intended. Everyone being together, working together with common purposes and goals and being attractive to others so that as the Lord did in Acts chapter 2, more will be added daily to those being saved.
WE
I’m going to send you to Facebook again this week, or for those who are not on Facebook you can send me a text or write me a note. Here are the questions that should have been posted during this message.
How do you describe Christian fellowship/community?
Are you finding or have you found Christian community at MVC?
How can MVC better provide opportunities for Christian community?
What has been a good experience for you at MVC in Christian community?
My challenge to you this week is to answer those question and to do it by Thursday morning if possible. And then I’ll see about including them in next weeks message if possible.
